maticians were corrected by that creature's workmanship. In order to combine the greatest strength with the least expenditure of material, the angles formed by the edges of hexagonal planes must have a certain regular amount. Now the eloquent author of "Creation's testimony to its God" says that "Marandi found by measurement that those formed by the bees were, for one, 109 degrees 28 minutes, and for the other, 70 degrees 32 minutes. By the intricate calculations of Koenig, it seemed to be ascertained that the proper angles should be 109 degrees 26 minutes, and 70 degrees 34 minutes. This was an approximation that might well be esteemed a marvel, the discrepancy being only the 10,800th part of the circle. But Lord Brougham, dissatisfied even with this discrepancy, shewed, by a fresh calculation, that, owing to the neglect of certain small quantities, the result formerly obtained was erroneous to the exact amount of two minutes; so that

the bees proved to be right, and the mathematician wrong." But there is no need to pursue this subject further. All creation, as well in the smallest as in the greatest things, testifies to the providence of God; and it is the christian man's privilege, as it is his greatest comfort, to believe that God who clothes the grass of the field, and provides for the well-being of the lower animals, will never fail or forsake his own. people; but will guide them by His counsel here, and afterward receive them to glory.

Let us pray that we may evermore realize this. Let us walk by faith, not by sight. Sense will lead us wrong, faith never. Sense looks below, faith looks above. Sense judges by what it feels and sees, faith pillows itself upon what God says and is. Thus when adversity comes sense despairs, while faith, looking beyond the clouds to the Lord who reigns, says, "All is well."

Brother, make God thy friend, and then learn to trust God. Remember, there is but one way in which you can do so. You must come to Jesus, and be taught by the Holy Ghost. And oh! Jesus is so willing to receive, and the Holy Spirit is so ready to teach you. If you are straitened, it is in yourself not in God that you are straitened. You have not, because you ask not. Ask, and thou shalt receive, and thy joy shall be full. Happy, unspeakably happy is the man who does trust God. He knows that come what may the Omnipotent is ever with him. "Solitude is not

too lonely for His visits; busy crowds cannot shut Him out; the monarch's palace is not above His reach; the peasant's cot is not below it." He whom angels adore, and who is all majesty and all power is ever by the side of his poor, weak, erring child. He knows this, and in "quietness. and confidence" he finds his strength.

"Trust on, trust on, believer,

Tho' long the conflict be,

Thou yet shalt

prove victorious,

Thy God shall fight for thee.

"Trust on, trust on, thy failings

May bow thee to the dust; Yet, in thy deepest sorrow, Oh! give not up thy trust. "Trust on; the danger presses, Temptation strong is near; Over life's dangerous rapids, Who shall thy passage steer? "Jesus is strong to save thee! He is a faithful friend; Trust on, trust on, believer!

Trust Jesus to the end."

45

LECTURE III.

ORPAH, OR THE MERE PROFESSOR.

RUTH 1, 7-14.

"Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters in law with her; and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah. And Naomi said unto her two daughters in law, Go, return each to her mother's house: the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me. The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept. And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people. And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands ? Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also to night, and should also bear sons. Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for